This Sunday Night at Met life Stadium, the Jets welcome New England to town with first place in the AFC East on the line. The game is one of the biggest rivalries in the league, and Jets coach Rex Ryan is never one to shy away from a little controversy.
Asked if he considers the Patriots to be an Evil Empire, Ryan replied, “Well, that’s been in a bunch of papers and all that stuff with [Bill] Belichick and the Darth Vader and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, why not?”
The Jets have called out their home crowd to be loud and crazy Sunday to give the Jets a real home field advantage. Under Ryan, the Jets have won both games at home against the Patriots and both times, Ryan has given credit to the fans for being loud and not letting the Patriots hear their own signals on offense. Ryan is exhorting the fan once again, “We will put the best team we can out on that field and we expect the fans to bring their best in the stands.”
The Patriots won the first meeting this year, but since that game the Jets have won three in a row and look like a new team. Ryan admitted he got caught up in the “new look offense” with quarterback Mark Sanchez throwing a lot more, but has vowed to return to running the ball and playing “smash mouth defense.” Of course, if there ever was a week to uncork the passing game, this might be it.
The Patriots are coming off back-to-back losses to the Steelers and Giants, who have revealed a formula for defeating this year’s Patriots. The Patriots have the league’s best passing offense, but the league’s worst passing defense. They are throwing for 325 yards per game, and giving up 314 yards per game.
Both the Steelers and Giants were effective throwing the ball, and limited the damage Brady could do by pressuring the Patriots receivers at the line, throwing off the precision timing of Brady’s passing game. The Jets have the talent at cornerback with Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie to press the Patriots receivers. The interesting element will be if Ryan let’s Sanchez, Plaxico Burress and Santonio Holmes attack the Patriots struggling pass defense.
The Patriots strengths and flaws have been revealed, and the Jets have the personnel to take advantage of those flaws, so this looks like a very winnable game for the Jets. But don’t expect the Patriots to go down easy, they have only lost three games in a row once under in the Belichick-Brady era, and they won’t go down without a fight.
